I grew up in East Park Addition, north of the tracks between Washington Street and Loomis Street, north to Ogden Avenue. Our neighborhood had many kids and we’d play baseball in the street, football in the empty lot (and there were many back then!), hide and seek or kick the can. We were very good at entertaining ourselves!
As we grew up, school sports and music began to take our interest and I began playing tuba at Ellsworth School in about 1949. In those days, there was only one band director in town, Elmer Koerner. He had taught music to my parents and now he was teaching me!
As Naperville grew, another grade school was built and in the 1954-55 school year, Mr. Koerner was still the only band director in town. He taught bands at the high school, junior high, three elementary schools, Ss. Peter and Paul AND the Naperville Municipal Band!
Toward the end of that school year (I was a sophomore in high school), Mr. Koerner went to then-Superintendent of Schools Ralph Beebe and asked for help.
Mr. Koerner said he couldn’t teach that many schools and do a good job.
So, Mr. Beebe agreed and the school board hired two to help him and gave him the choice of the high school, the junior high or the grade schools.
Mr. Koerner chose the grade schools. I was crushed! I’d wanted him to be my band director for my last two years in high school.
I recall he said to me, “I want to see music students get the right start so they will be successful in junior high and high school.”
Mr. Murfin became director at the high school and Mr. Hoffman got the junior high.
Many years later when I returned to Naperville as a band teacher, I got the great privilege of working with both those fine teachers!
My dad always wanted me to be a football player, but I realized during my sophomore year, I was too small. I was 5’ 3” and weighed 112 pounds. I was up against 150-pounds and bigger, so I had a tough job of telling my dad I was quitting football.
I’d expected him to rant, but all he asked was what I was going to do instead, and I said, “March in the band!”
My senior year, the band had grown to 75 members and we got new uniforms! Bright red and trimmed in white. We really looked sharp.
We premiered the new uniforms at our first football game. And on Memorial Day, we were the sharpest band in the parade.
Looking back, I learned a lot from Mr. Koerner. And then Mr. Murfin became another mentor to me, and asked me to be student director.
I began looking forward to college where I studied to become a band director.
